Literary Birthday – 2 November – Lois McMaster Bujold

I need words that mean more than they mean, words not just with height and width, but depth and weight and, and other dimensions that I cannot even name.

I quickly discovered that writing was far too demanding and draining to justify as a hobby, and that only serious professional recognition would satisfy me. Whatever had to be done, in terms of writing, re-writing, cutting, editorial analysis, and trying again, I was determined to learn to do. This was an immensely fruitful period in my growth as a writer, all of it invisible to the outside observer.

Escapist literature gets a bad rap. But I think escape is important for a lot of people in a lot of places.

The books first turn up as fragmentary pictures in my head, usually, disconnected scenes that I then have to explain to myself, and eventually the reader. They don’t turn up all at once, of course, or my head would explode; just the opening, and a notion of the direction or ending.

Writing is a very redemptive profession — even one’s failures may be re-classified as raw material. And memoir is not the only genre where the writer finds what to say by opening a slice from neck to navel and rummaging around inside.

All virtues come down to courage, at the sharp end of the sword. But courage must be tempered by prudence. Courage wasted by misdirection is the most heart-breaking of all tragedies. If there is an eighth deadly sin, it ought to be stupidity.

I’ve always thought tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.

I know what the value [of storytelling] is to me — varied and huge, giving me everything from delight, to knowledge, to access to friends and colleagues, a desirable identity through valued work, escape from pain, and a steady income. Not bad, for something so intangible as making and selling dream-by-number kits.

What you are is a question only you can answer.

Lois McMaster Bujold is an American science fiction author whose novels have been translated into 20 languages. They include the award-winning Chalion series, beginning with The Curse of Chalion, the Sharing Knife series, and the best-selling Vorkosigan Saga. She has won the Hugo Award for best novel four times.